Almond separator and grader



Dec. 2, 4- 1,517,941

H. s. BINFORD,

ALMOND SEPARATOR AND GRADER Filed June '7, 1922 2 Shee ts-She at 1 0000000 o 000 '0 000000 o ooooooooo oooooooo o ooooooooo OOOOOOOOIOoooooooo o 000000000 ooooo-ooop 000000000 0 ooooo o 00 0000 0 0 0000 ION 0 oooooo 00 0000 |o 0000000 0 oooooooo o Magoo-0000 00.. ooooqoooooooooo oooooooolo ooooooooo QOOOOOOOIO o 000 I o oooooooo'o oOQ-OQOIO 0 00-0 ,0 0 0000000 oooooooo o oooooooo o ooooooooo OOOOOOOOIO.QOOOQOOOIO F hmnfiomon n oooooooop 90009000 2 Ji'avenor "lLJJ"HSfizzzforcZ.

Patented Dec. 2, 1924.

PATENT OFFICE."

HEB-MAN S. BINFORD, 0F IVIO'DES'ITOy CALIFORNIA.

ALHKOND SEPARATOR AND GRADER.

Application filed June 7',

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMAN S. Bmroin), a citizen of the United States,residing at Modesto, in the county of Stanislaus and State ofCalifornia, have invented new and useful Improvements in AlmondSeparators and (irraders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in almond separators, theprincipal object of which is to provide means for separating almonds ofdifferent sizes from the almond hulls.

Another object is to provide means whereby the separated almonds arecollected and the hulls are conveyed to a distant point.

Still further objects are to provide means which are extremely simpleand consequently cheap to manufacture; and also to provide means whichwill enable the operator to readily clean the device and to changescreens at will.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent during the course of thefollowing description,

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, andin which like *numerals are employed to designate like parts throughoutthe same,

Figure 1 is a cross-section taken on the line 1-1 of Figure 2,

Figure 2 is a top plan View of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a cross-section taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1,

Figure 4 is a cross-section taken on the line 44 of Figure 1,

Figure 5 is an elevation of the shaking element,

Figure 6 is a side elevation of the device as a whole, and

Figures 7, 8 and 9 are fragmentary detail views of the separatingscreens.

In th separating of almonds from their hulls, considerable difficultyhas been experienced in handling various sizes of nuts with the resultthat the grading and separating was not uniform. It has also beenfound'that in separating these nuts, a great many of the meats whichwould fall out of the cracked shells would pass through the separatorand be lost. It is to overcome these difficulties that I have providedmeans for separating the nutmeats from the hulls. This I haveaccomplished through an ar- 1922. Serial No. 566,499.

rangement of screens mounted upon a shaklng element.

In the accompanying drawings wherein for the purpose of illustration isshown a preferred embodiment of my invention, the numerals 11 and 12refer to standards which support a top frame 13, while the numeral 14refers to a bottom brace to which are attached diagonal braces 16 and17. It is obvious that any form of support might be used. A conveyer 18consisting" of a belt passing over pulleys 19 and 21 is supported in thestandards 22 and 23, which are properly braced as shown at 24and 26.This conveyer is adapted to lie partly beneath a shaking elementdesignated as a whole by the numeral. 27. At- 28 and 29, I have showndepending links pivoted as at 31 and 32 to the top frame 13. Thesedepending links are in turn pivoted as at 33 and 34 tothe shakingelement 27. At 36, I have shown a crank which may be revolved in anyconvenient manner, and has secured thereto as at 87 a rocking lever 88,which rocking lever is in turn pivoted at 39 to the shaking element 27By now referring to Figures 1 and 2, it will be noted that I haveprovided a series of screens, the uppermost screen being divided intotwo parts as shown at 41 and 42, the screen 41 being formed ofperforated material while the screen 42 is of woven wire construction.At 43, I have shown a diagonal strip, which strip serves to cause thenuts passing over the screen 42 to work toward a trough 44 at the end ofthe screen 42, while at 46 is shown a screen the, construction of whichis best shown in Figure 7. This screen is adapted to discharge into atrough 4'7. Mounted beneath the screen 46 is a. screen 48, which screenis of the con struction shown in Figure 8. This screen is adapted todischarge upon the conveyer 18 while beneath the screen 48 is a screen49, which discharges. into av trough 51, it being understood that thetroughs 44, 47 and 51 each discharge into separate receptacles (nowshown). In order that access may be gained to the screens 46, 48 and 49,I have provided and held in a closed position as by a latch 54. Thescreen 41 is removable so that screens of different sizes may beemployed in order that different grades of nuts may a hinged door 52,hinged as at 53 be sorted. It will be noted by viewing Figure 1, thatthe right hand end of the shaking element is lower than the left handend, the purpose of which is to cause the material upon the screen tomove toward the left hand end as indicated by the arrows parallel to thescreens in Figure 1. The arrows at right angles to the screens in Figure1 indicate the direction that the material will take in passing throughthe screens.

The operation of my device is as fol lows A huller of standard form ismounted adjacent the left hand end of my machine into which are placedalmonds as they come from the trees, that is, having the hulls thereon.The device is then started, which results in discharging hulled almondsonto the screen 41 of my device, with the result that the nuts of thesame size as the openings in the screen will pass therethrough and tallupon the screen 46 as will also the broken pieces of hulls. The largernuts and large pieces of hulls will pass onto the screen 4-2 where thehulls will drop through onto the con. veyer 18 and be conveyed to adistant point. The reason for the hulls passing through is due to theirlong thin shape which allows them to pass through the screen, while theoval nuts will not pass therethrough. The nuts which reach the screen a2will be moved into contact with the cross piece 43 and be dischargedinto the trough 4st, where they will be gathered into a suitablereceptacle. The nuts and hulls reaching the screen 46 will graduallymove over the same with the result that the hulls and almond meats willfall through onto the screen 48, while the nuts will be discharged intothe trough 17, The broken hulls and meats which reach the screen a8 willmove over the same, and as this screen is of a sufficient size to allowthe meats to pass therethrough and only the very small pieces of brokenhulls, the result will be that the large pieces of hulls will bedischarged on the conveyor 18 while the meats will pass onto the screen49. This screen will be of sutficient size to catch the nut meats anddischarge them into the trough 51, while the broken pieces of hullswhich reach this point will. pass through onto the ground or into areceptacle. It

should be noted that the troughs are downwardly inclined and projectbeyond one side wall of the frame, with the troughs tt and 47 havingtheir discharge ends arranged above the conveyor 18.

It is obvious that a certain amount oi hand picking will have to beresorted to as no machine is capable of removing all foreign matter. Ihave, however, provided avery simple means tor removing the majority ofhulls from the nut meats and shelled almonds, and at the same time Ihave provided means whereby I sort the almonds as to size.

By removing the screen l-l and placing a different screen therein havingapertures of a larger or smaller size, I am able to handle differentsizes of nuts without the necessity of se :uring additional expensiveequipment.

It is to be understood that the form o't my invention herewith shown anddescribed is to be taken as a preferred example oi? the same, and thatvarious changes in the shape, size and arrangen'ient of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or thescope of the subjoined claim.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim In an almond separator, a shaking element, comprising a horizontalscreen formed in two portions, one of said portions having circularopenings therethrough, and the other of said portions havingtransversely disposed elongated openings therethrough, a second screenmounted in said shaking element and at a point beneath said screenhaving the circular openings therein, a third screen mounted beneathsaid second mentioned screen, said third mentioned screen havingopenings therein of different mesh than said first mentioned screens, afourth screen mounted beneath said third mentioned screen, conveyermeans for receiving a portion oi? the discharge passing through thethree upper screens and downwardly inclined troughs projecting beyondthe side wall of the frame arranged at one end of each of the first,second and fourth mentioned screens for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I atllx my signature.

HERMAN S. BINFORD.

